For our Costa Brava collection we were inspired by the colors and icons of Cadaqués – a coastal fishing village in Catalonia. The town had a distinctive color palette of whites, blues and sunny yellows – which we used to create fun summery pieces. We love the vintage nautical feel, which inspired the silhouettes and graphics of the season.
We found a lot of great street art on our trip to Barcelona. Here are some of our favorites from our trip pictures!
I bet you were wondering where to find the really awesome skate park in our Spring catalog. This painted wave pipe can be found just 70 miles south of us in Santa Cruz, California at Santa Cruz Skate Park.
Santa Cruz Skate Park in Santa Cruz, Ca
Since there was such a cool skate board park so close to us, I figured there must be tons of painted skate parks all over. But as I started researching I only found a few:
Malmö Skate Park in Malmö, Sweden
Octopus Skate Pool in Lugano, Switzerland
Does anyone know any other skate park murals?
Spring has sprung in many parts of the country, and this week we’re celebrating by focusing on skateboarding at Tea. Our Spring collection has many urban-inspired, skateboard-friendly pieces that encourage play and hold up well under exuberant activity! To get started and set the tone, we thought we’d share these amazing photographs by local San Francisco artist Andrew Paynter, who traveled around the world photographing skateboarders:
I just love these playful illustrations by Spanish artist Paola Guimerans! Check out more greatness on her flickr page.
Above prints available at Little Paper Planes.
Beautiful images looking into the eyes of caged animals, by Barcelona photographer Oscar Ciutat.
Back in college I took a film class and made a documentary comparing gorillas to my fellow college students. Guess who was more civilized? Anyway, I spent a lot of time getting to know the lovely family group at the Pittsburgh Zoo and really fell in love. Since then, I’ve become really interested in great ape conservation. So when my friend sent me the above postcard from Barcelona I was pretty stoked to learn about an albino gorilla. Snowflake was one of the most popular residents at the Barcelona zoo. He has become a beloved icon of Barcelona and the embodiment of gorilla conservation. As soon as I learned we were doing Barcelona as a destination, I set out to design a shirt in tribute to a very special gorilla.
Watch the PBS special on Snowflake at HULU.
Check out these resources to learn more or contribute to gorilla conservation:
Sita Murt is a contemporary Spanish fashion designer. Born into a family of leather tanners, she now is the head of Esteve Aguilera (a designer knitwear company). Sita’s whole life has been surrounded by fashion, and as soon as her four children were grown she began designing her own line. Her women’s designs are young and airy, using lightweight fabrics.
Above is a film from Sita’s blog showcasing a dress from her latest line to celebrate spring. In her words, it is “a film that portrays, with all the simplicity, the immense power of spring, the driving force of life.”
We found this beautifully illustrated children’s book on our trip to Spain. I wish I could tell you what it’s about, but it is VERY long and all in Spanish. I made up my own story based on the illustrations: There was a quirky scientist, who loved the beauty of nature and machinery. He discovered a way to create creatures that were half machine and half nature – but not in a freaky sci-fi kind of way – in a perfect symbiosis.
We especially loved these tables of some of his creations.
We decided to create our own creatures. We played the idea of a stilt walking tiger and a gear horse:
But finally decided that a heli-phant was the best choice.
